I really enjoyed getting to know Aaron for this story, even though we didn't get to spend a lot of time together. Enjoy!
Aaron Davis. By Brian Reetz
His energy is infectious, captivating and inspiring.
Former student at Clinton Elementary, Culler Middle School, Lincoln High School and University of Nebraska football player Aaron Davis admits to having no idea what he would be doing career wise when looking at his future.
But all he knows now is that he’s having a blast -- as a professional speaker and author with Aaron Davis Presentations, Inc.
“I thought I would be in business or in sales -- which it is,” Davis said. “But I didn’t think it would be in this capacity. It wasn’t the traditional career path. It was a pretty unorthodox.”
After graduating from the University of Nebraska with a degree in Psychology, Davis starting working as the urban outreach director with Campus Life, a youth ministry in Lincoln. While at the same time, he was working with his former coach with the Huskers, Ron Brown, who is known for his speaking ability and how he can connect with an audience.
“I really started enjoying it and felt it was fun,” Davis said. “I was using a gift that God had given me to use. I continued to get busier talking to mostly high school age groups.”
Davis left Campus Life and started in sales for the Dale Carnegie Foundation. The speaking continued to grow and then he left for a job at the University of Nebraska in its Upward Bound department as an educational specialist while working on his master’s degree. But it eventually got to the point where the speaking had to have 100 percent of his time.
It’s taken him in directions that he couldn’t imagine including nearly all fifty states, the Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and the Dominican. “I’ve had offers to go over to Europe but that doesn’t appeal to me right now,” Davis said citing family concerns. “The international travel with 9-11 has changed a lot. It’s different when you are going to California or Texas than to London. You are talking a whole day and a half away. It’s been a blast. I never thought I would have seen as much as I’ve seen at the age I am (34 years old). The biggest audience I spoke for was 30,000 down in Dallas. But the bigger the audience the looser I am and the smaller the audience the more nervous I am – they are close and looking right at you.”
Each audience is different and Davis admits to being nervous before every talk. “By the grace of God, I’ve given well over a thousand talks and spoken to over a million people in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. and every time I’m nervous,” Davis said. “If I’m not, something is wrong.”
Before each talk Davis will do a preprogram questionnaire with the meeting planner. He will ask them a series of things like “What do you want your people to feel like when they walk out of here?”, “What are obstacles and challenges facing your industry right now?”, “What happens if you do or don’t overcome those obstacles?”, “What are some of your wins?”, “What are some of your losses?”.
“Then I study their industry like mad…trade publications, magazines, associations,” Davis said. “I love it. There are a lot of industries that I know a little bit about because of this. You are constantly learning new things and meeting incredible people that have overcome situations or built a business. Then I hopefully inspire them and give them a few ideas that can help them both personally and professionally. The work that you put into a presentation can be hours. You are still asking questions and taking notes. It’s like a football game. You can never have too much information about an opponent like with tendencies. I might only use 10 percent of it but it is a broad base that you can pull from.”
Speaking of football, many might remember Davis during his time as a wide receiver on the 1994 National Championship team.
“I was a local kid that grew up loving Nebraska football,” Davis said. “When the opportunity arose to go to Nebraska, I walked on there. My older brother, Mark, was an equipment manager there when he was in college and so I grew up being around the stadium. It was in my blood. Going to Nebraska and playing for Coach (Tom) Osborne was a dream come true. I got to know Coach Brown. I also worked football camps there and, in fact, Coach (Frank) Solich gave me my first job. To be a member of a national championship team and play for a great coach, the lessons you learn in those few years take you for the rest of your life. Coach Osborne cared more about the next 40 years of your life than your 40-yard dash or our four years of eligibility. That is why you will have a hard time to find a guy that wouldn’t run through a wall for him. You knew that he loved you and cared about you, more than just football. Football was just a vehicle to teach you about life. At Nebraska, we didn’t think we were going to win, we knew it. There is a major difference. When we took the field, we weren’t hoping or thinking we knew it and many times the other team knew it. He taught us to play not with arrogance or with cockiness but with amazing confidence.”
But even with all of that and another year of eligibility, Davis gave it all up heading into the 1995 season, in what would be the Huskers’ second national title in a row. “I was a walk-on and the money was a little tight,” Davis said. “I had a lot of things happen. One of my best friends was murdered. I really went through a change and I just wanted to be done. That (the murder) threw me for a loop. It happened right in our house. For two years I was in a cloud. So I just finished up school but I really missed football. Any regrets? Probably, but God works out his plan.”
Even with his busy schedule Davis continues to follow the fortunes of the Huskers and feels for everyone involved the past few years.
“Gut-wrenching,” Davis said. “Gut-wrenching. Football is cyclical. I will say that. But Nebraska went through some tough times and I’m not going to point fingers at anybody because people have done enough of that but it was tough for everybody – those coaches, their families, the players. I will say this, I’m just glad it is in the direction it is now. Bo (Pelini) and his staff are going to bring a breath of fresh air. The key though was Coach Osborne giving a sense of stability. I think they are going to be fine. It is just a game but it is our pastime and our identity as a state. Walk-ons I think are big. When you have kids from the state, you don’t play at Nebraska, you play for Nebraska -- all 1.7 million of them. Most of those kids are like me since they were young they wanted to play for Nebraska and that red N on the side of the helmet. You were like yeah! It was in the pedigree.”
Davis brings the same energy to his presentations that he brought to Memorial Stadium. He has some of them posted on his web site, www.aarondavisspeaks.com.
“I think one of the reasons that I love what I do so much is that every day is different,” Davis said. “Like yesterday, I spoke for a local client here in town (Nebraska Book Company). They had their national sales meeting so I did a keynote for that and spoke for an hour and fifteen minutes. The days that I’m not speaking there are meetings but not a ton of them. I’m constantly working on more product development including books, a CD series and working with some of my consulting clients.”
Davis already has one book on the market, 10 Minute Truths, and at first the concept of doing it scared him to death after writing a bunch of papers in college with his minor in English.
“The concept of doing a book can be daunting but the hardest part is actually sitting down and writing it,” Davis said. “I decided to write a book about short lessons, vignettes about things that I’ve learned in life, from my dad and experiences. I got help from the former CEO at iUniverse Susan Driscoll. I really got the idea from Richard Carlson and his book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. I like how he writes his books. They were short and they were powerful and easy to digest.”
Davis is currently working on a second book about customer service. It’s called, Wisdom From the Man with a Mop: What I’ve Learned About Customer Service and Life. It’s about what he’s learned from his dad, who was a custodian for over 40 years at different churches and buildings and what he taught Davis indirectly about customer service with the way he treated people and took care of his business. He is working on a CD series called The Champions Collection. It will be on four different topics: Attitude, productivity, dealing with difficult people and how to go to the next plane. Each one will be available in podcast form as well. Davis was getting ready to go to Pittsburgh for the Association of Chamber of Commerce directors as well as presentations in Kansas and Oregon after recent presentations in Dallas, Denver and Phoenix.
“I stay busy just by word of mouth,” Davis said. “If you serve your customer and clients, business will take care of itself.”
But he also places an emphasis on his family life. Davis has been married to Brooke for 11 years and they have three children – 10-year-old Aden, 8-year-old Keenon and 4-year-old Niya. “I’m pretty selective to what I speak at,” Davis said. “You want to be around them and at home we have a lot of fun together.”
Aaron Davis. By Brian Reetz
His energy is infectious, captivating and inspiring.
Former student at Clinton Elementary, Culler Middle School, Lincoln High School and University of Nebraska football player Aaron Davis admits to having no idea what he would be doing career wise when looking at his future.
But all he knows now is that he’s having a blast -- as a professional speaker and author with Aaron Davis Presentations, Inc.
“I thought I would be in business or in sales -- which it is,” Davis said. “But I didn’t think it would be in this capacity. It wasn’t the traditional career path. It was a pretty unorthodox.”
After graduating from the University of Nebraska with a degree in Psychology, Davis starting working as the urban outreach director with Campus Life, a youth ministry in Lincoln. While at the same time, he was working with his former coach with the Huskers, Ron Brown, who is known for his speaking ability and how he can connect with an audience.
“I really started enjoying it and felt it was fun,” Davis said. “I was using a gift that God had given me to use. I continued to get busier talking to mostly high school age groups.”
Davis left Campus Life and started in sales for the Dale Carnegie Foundation. The speaking continued to grow and then he left for a job at the University of Nebraska in its Upward Bound department as an educational specialist while working on his master’s degree. But it eventually got to the point where the speaking had to have 100 percent of his time.
It’s taken him in directions that he couldn’t imagine including nearly all fifty states, the Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and the Dominican. “I’ve had offers to go over to Europe but that doesn’t appeal to me right now,” Davis said citing family concerns. “The international travel with 9-11 has changed a lot. It’s different when you are going to California or Texas than to London. You are talking a whole day and a half away. It’s been a blast. I never thought I would have seen as much as I’ve seen at the age I am (34 years old). The biggest audience I spoke for was 30,000 down in Dallas. But the bigger the audience the looser I am and the smaller the audience the more nervous I am – they are close and looking right at you.”
Each audience is different and Davis admits to being nervous before every talk. “By the grace of God, I’ve given well over a thousand talks and spoken to over a million people in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. and every time I’m nervous,” Davis said. “If I’m not, something is wrong.”
Before each talk Davis will do a preprogram questionnaire with the meeting planner. He will ask them a series of things like “What do you want your people to feel like when they walk out of here?”, “What are obstacles and challenges facing your industry right now?”, “What happens if you do or don’t overcome those obstacles?”, “What are some of your wins?”, “What are some of your losses?”.
“Then I study their industry like mad…trade publications, magazines, associations,” Davis said. “I love it. There are a lot of industries that I know a little bit about because of this. You are constantly learning new things and meeting incredible people that have overcome situations or built a business. Then I hopefully inspire them and give them a few ideas that can help them both personally and professionally. The work that you put into a presentation can be hours. You are still asking questions and taking notes. It’s like a football game. You can never have too much information about an opponent like with tendencies. I might only use 10 percent of it but it is a broad base that you can pull from.”
Speaking of football, many might remember Davis during his time as a wide receiver on the 1994 National Championship team.
“I was a local kid that grew up loving Nebraska football,” Davis said. “When the opportunity arose to go to Nebraska, I walked on there. My older brother, Mark, was an equipment manager there when he was in college and so I grew up being around the stadium. It was in my blood. Going to Nebraska and playing for Coach (Tom) Osborne was a dream come true. I got to know Coach Brown. I also worked football camps there and, in fact, Coach (Frank) Solich gave me my first job. To be a member of a national championship team and play for a great coach, the lessons you learn in those few years take you for the rest of your life. Coach Osborne cared more about the next 40 years of your life than your 40-yard dash or our four years of eligibility. That is why you will have a hard time to find a guy that wouldn’t run through a wall for him. You knew that he loved you and cared about you, more than just football. Football was just a vehicle to teach you about life. At Nebraska, we didn’t think we were going to win, we knew it. There is a major difference. When we took the field, we weren’t hoping or thinking we knew it and many times the other team knew it. He taught us to play not with arrogance or with cockiness but with amazing confidence.”
But even with all of that and another year of eligibility, Davis gave it all up heading into the 1995 season, in what would be the Huskers’ second national title in a row. “I was a walk-on and the money was a little tight,” Davis said. “I had a lot of things happen. One of my best friends was murdered. I really went through a change and I just wanted to be done. That (the murder) threw me for a loop. It happened right in our house. For two years I was in a cloud. So I just finished up school but I really missed football. Any regrets? Probably, but God works out his plan.”
Even with his busy schedule Davis continues to follow the fortunes of the Huskers and feels for everyone involved the past few years.
“Gut-wrenching,” Davis said. “Gut-wrenching. Football is cyclical. I will say that. But Nebraska went through some tough times and I’m not going to point fingers at anybody because people have done enough of that but it was tough for everybody – those coaches, their families, the players. I will say this, I’m just glad it is in the direction it is now. Bo (Pelini) and his staff are going to bring a breath of fresh air. The key though was Coach Osborne giving a sense of stability. I think they are going to be fine. It is just a game but it is our pastime and our identity as a state. Walk-ons I think are big. When you have kids from the state, you don’t play at Nebraska, you play for Nebraska -- all 1.7 million of them. Most of those kids are like me since they were young they wanted to play for Nebraska and that red N on the side of the helmet. You were like yeah! It was in the pedigree.”
Davis brings the same energy to his presentations that he brought to Memorial Stadium. He has some of them posted on his web site, www.aarondavisspeaks.com.
“I think one of the reasons that I love what I do so much is that every day is different,” Davis said. “Like yesterday, I spoke for a local client here in town (Nebraska Book Company). They had their national sales meeting so I did a keynote for that and spoke for an hour and fifteen minutes. The days that I’m not speaking there are meetings but not a ton of them. I’m constantly working on more product development including books, a CD series and working with some of my consulting clients.”
Davis already has one book on the market, 10 Minute Truths, and at first the concept of doing it scared him to death after writing a bunch of papers in college with his minor in English.
“The concept of doing a book can be daunting but the hardest part is actually sitting down and writing it,” Davis said. “I decided to write a book about short lessons, vignettes about things that I’ve learned in life, from my dad and experiences. I got help from the former CEO at iUniverse Susan Driscoll. I really got the idea from Richard Carlson and his book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. I like how he writes his books. They were short and they were powerful and easy to digest.”
Davis is currently working on a second book about customer service. It’s called, Wisdom From the Man with a Mop: What I’ve Learned About Customer Service and Life. It’s about what he’s learned from his dad, who was a custodian for over 40 years at different churches and buildings and what he taught Davis indirectly about customer service with the way he treated people and took care of his business. He is working on a CD series called The Champions Collection. It will be on four different topics: Attitude, productivity, dealing with difficult people and how to go to the next plane. Each one will be available in podcast form as well. Davis was getting ready to go to Pittsburgh for the Association of Chamber of Commerce directors as well as presentations in Kansas and Oregon after recent presentations in Dallas, Denver and Phoenix.
“I stay busy just by word of mouth,” Davis said. “If you serve your customer and clients, business will take care of itself.”
But he also places an emphasis on his family life. Davis has been married to Brooke for 11 years and they have three children – 10-year-old Aden, 8-year-old Keenon and 4-year-old Niya. “I’m pretty selective to what I speak at,” Davis said. “You want to be around them and at home we have a lot of fun together.”
Comments